Judie Brown
Are human rights just mere words?
FacebookTwitter
By Judie Brown
August 14, 2011

Jesus taught us to do unto others as we would have done unto us. It doesn't seem like much to ask — to treat others kindly, with the love and respect that we would hope to get. Yet, many in today's society see no other way than to put themselves first. Everything that happens, bad or good, is about "me." Personal happiness and comfort, rather than the happiness or well-being of family, friends, or even strangers, is first and foremost. This selfishness is seen in the high number of abortions in our country and in the devastating new practice of neonaticide. Read today's commentary for Judie Brown's insights.

Recently we reprinted an outstanding article entitled "The Erosion of Human Rights" that had been published in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. The author, Carlo V. Bellieni, addresses the horrific practice that involves doctors who are denying basic care and treatment to newborn children. Bellieni referred to researcher Michael Gross who conducted a study of practices in four Western countries that use abortion and neonaticide as management strategies. In an article on abortion and neonaticide, Gross wrote, "There are firm ethical norms that should serve as the basis for coherent and consistent perinatal policy." In that policy he includes, "a general endorsement of neonaticide subject to a parent's assessment of the newborn's interest broadly defined to consider physical harm as well as social, psychological, and/or financial harm to related third parties."

I began considering the phrase "harm to related third parties" in the context of those in our midst who approve the idea of avoiding inconvenience by willfully taking the lives of the vulnerable — be they newborns, preborns, or others — if the same became normal medical practice. After all, the "all about me" culture does not admit to accepting responsibility for the fate of others, including one's own children, particularly if they require self-sacrifice.

There was a time when the ethical framework of medicine was such that these practices would not only have been avoided at all costs but would be condemned publicly. Sadly, this is not the case today, as witnessed by the thousands of children who die by acts of abortion on a daily basis — not to mention the newborns and the seriously ill patients who are deemed better off dead than alive. The argument favoring killing is that if the individual continues living, he creates a burden on the family, society, and the economy.

Such skewed thinking appears to be guiding, among other things, the advances being made in the use of palliative care as a methodology for convincing the families of the desperately ill that life has become too wearisome to be continued. A recent article on the topic of palliative care teams stated, "Only 30 percent of the public was knowledgeable about palliative care.... Most likely, less than 15 percent was truly knowledgeable about palliative care, Meier [director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care] said, adding that she saw that as a good thing because it is much harder to change misconception than to create a perception."

The Center to Advance Palliative Care is among those organizations that need to be monitored carefully because the perception that many of us have is that, in too many cases, so-called palliative care is all about hastening death. While this may well be the popular trend, it is still true that dying should be addressed with Christian charity rather than a focus on personal convenience.

As one spiritual writer states,

    [T]he sick person shouldn't be denied the truth of his situation any more than those around him should lie to themselves. It is not a loving act to ignore reality out of fear of not wanting to alarm the sick one, and to do so is to imperil his everlasting soul. The dying person needs to face his mortality, to repent, to pray, to receive Unction, to be encouraged to trust totally in Jesus and His forgiveness and love, etc. He must spiritually prepare himself for judgment, and to help him do this is the single greatest act of love you can offer.

Taking the time to unselfishly care for another, affirming his or her right to be respected as a human being, and doing all we can to hold that life in as much regard as Christ Himself would is the proper avenue to take. The culture may define such a course as fanatical, unacceptable, or simply impossible in today's self-centered world, but that does not change what it means to respect another's human rights.

Perhaps it is time to ask ourselves some tough questions.

What sort of respect for the human rights of the patient do practices such as hastening death suggest? Do the neonates with disabilities, the dying, or the preborn have questionable human rights? Does it depend on what others think is acceptable or practical? Are human rights fungible?

Bellieni concludes his article with these sobering words, "It is seriously worrying that selective re-animation has come to be considered normal routine in clinical practice. In short, a banal custom."

I wholeheartedly agree. And, until such time as mankind once again reveres the human person for who he is in the eyes of God, human rights are going to be nothing more than two words on a piece of paper.

American Life League, the oldest national Catholic pro-life organization in the United States, was cofounded by Judie Brown in 1979. Appointed twice by Pope John Paul II and again by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Academy for Life, Brown and will release her twelfth book, The Broken Path this fall. For more information, please visit http://www.ALL.org or call 540-659-4171.

© Judie Brown

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Judie Brown

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization... (more)

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Judie Brown: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
Flashback: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Pete Riehm
Like our Commander-in-Chief, America is clueless, feckless, and powerless

Selwyn Duke
Did anti-white, DEI bias steal a state final spot from a white basketball team?

James Lambert
It’s time to get a Republican (like Steve Garvey) elected to the U.S. Senate in CA. It’s been 30 years!

Linda Goudsmit
Chapter 10: Objective reality is required for a free society

Michael Bresciani
Gay is OK, but trans for kids is on the skids – Have Americans now become judges of evil thoughts?

Linda Kimball
Nihilism…all that exists is matter and energy: The worldview that caused the collapse of Christendom and Protestant Amer

Peter Lemiska
China doesn’t need a Trojan Horse – It has Joe Biden

Rev. Mark H. Creech
Revelation Chapter 22: Getting beyond doubt, Billy Graham’s example

Paul A. Byrne, M.D.
2024 International Gift of Life Walk – NYC

Cliff Kincaid
Biden’s bloody revolution for America

Victor Sharpe
Senator Schumer enters the annals of Shame

Linda Kimball
Prayer against evil, insane Babylon
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites